Grafts
Grafts is a piece in three parts that expand upon the virtual processing technique heard on 2014’s A 480; however these works differ in that they contain significantly more unaltered multi-instrumental part writing weaved in counterpoint to stems of the una corda, and are thus more hybrid in nature. Each sound and melody heard was performed by the fingers and wrists through b/w keyboard input, then re-pitched and re-woven through a back-and-forth grafting procedure of layering and securing on a four-channel processor. Heard arrangements are derived from pitch-shifted stems called ‘scrubs.’ ‘Scrubbing’ is the process of creating a sound (out of a sound) not for existence of the sound itself, but for it to be completed by others which surround it. Tonal structures are constructed by terracing frequencies (rather than equal tempered pitches) through multiple chains of graphic equalizers to produce frequency-selected layers of scrub-based melodies and arrangements.
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Released on Boomkat in APRIL 2017
Expanded Reissue with previously unreleased Side B "Undo" Released JULY 2020
Aftertouches
Aftertouches playfully exploits the systemic nature of a post-sacred and post-instrument world, continuing Kara-Lis Coverdale’s exploration of coded realism and virtual transfiguration. Through an optimistic lens, Aftertouches explores and celebrates the multiple voices of the machine. Synthetic instruments sourced from VSTs, sound banks, and personal archives are arranged into holograms of dreams once inspired by physical origin. Through digital superimposition processes, instrument profiles mutate and take on new forms of articulation. Crystalline organs support and prop plastic voices and insistent water flutes dance with metallically chromatic snake-like motifs in vignettes of compositional schizophrenia. Absurd and delightful fusions seething through temporal portholes are unexpectedly swiped left, enveloped by dense clouds of lament and remembrance.
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Credits
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All music performed, recorded, and composed by Kara-Lis Coverdale between Mar 2013-Jan 2015 in Montreal. "X 4EWI" and "Splash 144" are sections II and III from "Conversion Music" for VST and Wind Controller premiered at LMCML in June, 2014. Mastered by Jay Hodgson. Artwork by Kara-Lis Coverdale with layout by Jeremy Dabrowski.
Originally released March 24, 2015 on Sacred Phrases.
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A 480
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A 480 is a collection of repetitive, process-oriented virtual signal process pieces rendered entirely in the digital sphere. The pieces consist of originally composed, data rendered sample sources.
A 480 are vocal pieces. All the sounds are sourced from the 'voice' and confront the nature of the voice in the age of data. The virtual choirs are convoluted versions of actual recorded singers that have been unpersonally sourced, downloaded, then disembodied, disfigured, and displaced over forty times, finally reappearing here through a convoluted process of digital reincarnation. Hopefully this work is not their final destination.
The voices are curationally divided into short loops of different lengths in an audio loop program and played at different speeds across 4 different channels. Slight temporal variations fade in and out over time in constant flux, occasionally pausing for immersion in a pulse chamber before it moves onto another. The length of the looped samples are adjusted one at a time— lengthened and shortened, and at times switched out altogether, to reveal how seemingly minute temporal variations have impactful effects on overarching rhythm, melody, and energy.
Because of their evolutionary nature, the way they unfold and morph over long stretches of time, they have the capacity to be passive pieces of music that are environmental in function, though attentive listens reveal formal artifice expressed through compressed melodic counterpoint.
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credits
Artwork: A reprocessed Daniele De Batté image by Myran Elian, layout by Jeremy Dabrowski.
A 2014 GATE production.
Released on GATE April 20, 2014; Constellation Tatsu on November 1st, 2014.
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Sirens
Sirens is the first collaborative LP of Kara-Lis Coverdale (Tim Hecker, L/B) and LXV (David Sutton). Following their respective solo cassette releases Aftertouches (2015) and Spectral Playmate (2014) on Sacred Phrases, Coverdale and LXV debut on Umor Rex with a collection of multi-textural and multi-source electronic music rich in narrative, melody, and spectral intrigue.
Inspired by the link between seduction and violence, Sirens comprises a series of timbrally vast anamorphic pieces that poise the voice as a newly imagined tool of multiplicity. Processes of sample manipulation, signal processing, routing, and source design inform instrumental writing and performance in feedback until intertwined, flickering between states of conflict and consonance. Apparitions of the schitzophrenic voice are at one moment fractured and cold and at the next full of warmth and vivaciousness, embodying velvet rituals of romanticism in the digital age.
Ultimately, Sirens is music for ambitious dreamers: surreal sound portraits sound like the warmth of the world laid over an ice cold virtual altar. LXV’s vocal truncations and fleshy sound palettes depict the archivation of the breath and aural fantasies of the flesh which Coverdale sets amongst a vast and unconfined landscape of deeper and unknown force. Harmonically active and dynamic orchestrations underpin post-sacred tonalities while brooding pipe organs, sphinx flutes, and hailstorms of metallic percussion characterize uniquely disjointed discussions between disparate compositional ontologies. At times violent and at others serenely peaceful and seductive, these pieces, at their most powerful moments illuminate a felt space between cybernetic energy and the body.
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credits
Released on Umor Rex May 19, 2015
Recorded & produced by Kara-Lis Coverdale and David Sutton. Mastered by John Tejada. Design & layout by Daniel Castrejon. Cover photograph by Cody Cobb.
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https://umorrex.bandcamp.com/album/sirens
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Triptych
"Triptych" is a term originally used for religious art works presented in three panels, often at the head of an alter. I employ it not to index religious subject matter but rather a frame of listening stretched across three tableaus.
The recording is meant to be transparent so the body and character of the piano, an upright which I have known my entire life, is as much a part of the text as I.
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credits
Released December 18, 2012, GATE.
Written, Performed, and Recorded by Kara-Lis Coverdale. Recorded at Rattlesnake Point. Mastering by Jay Hodgson. Artwork by Jon Estwards. Special thanks to Eve, Rob, and Nordy.
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